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A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 



^FLORENCE WATTERS SNEDEKER 



ILLUSTRATED 




NEW YORK 



ll9M K ' 



HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 
1892 



OTHER VOLUMES JN 

Harper's "Black and White" Series. 

Illustrated. 32mo, Cloth, 50 cents each . 



A LITTLE SWISS SOJOURN. By WILLIAM DEAN HOW- 
ELLS. (hi Press.) 

A LETTER OF INTRODUCTION. A Farce. By WILLIAM 
Dean howells. 

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. An Address. By GEORGE 
WILLIAM Curtis. 

IN THE VESTIBULE LIMITED. By BRANDRR MAT- 
THEWS. 

THE ALBANY DEPOT. A Farce. By WILLIAM DEAN 
HOWELLS. 

Published by HARPER & BROTHERS. New York. 

For saie by all booksellers, or will be sejti by the piuhlishers, 
postage prepaid, on receipt 0/ price. 



Copyright, i8g2, by Harper & P>ROTHEriS. 

All rights reserved. 



/z-nu 



re 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

Curving to the heart of meadow and wood ". Frontispiece 

The tow" 3 

The black gates swung open " 7 

Into the lock" 11 

•1 the Towpath 13 

he white bridges . . . look up again from beneath". 17 
oomed around a curve, and came on — slow, inevita- 

( ble " 21 

e varied paddling with towing " . . . -25 

stead of Indians" ....... 31 

le lake " 35 

irrored in the pure and tranquil water " . . -39 

sheet of blue " 43 

In Camp 49 

Oh, rest ye, brother mariners " 53 

''.4-s coffee steamed and steak broiled we advanced in 

;acquaintance " 57 

Atithe Fort 61 

' ;Gemegross ' . . . spread her sail " . . . .67 

A cabin. It was vei-y gray and low " . . . .69 

A Lake Ferry-boat ........ 71 

At Mineville 75 

!\ black evil pit " 77 

On Deck of the " Vermont" 8r 

Landing 85 

What fair}' fleet flying about us " 89 



VI ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 
"With stroke of paddle darting in and out " . . -91 

" Victory or a ducking " -95 

Drifting -99 

" Dreadfully earnest consultation " .... 103 
The Sea-serpent, Lake Champlain ..... 105 

Reading " Robinson Crusoe " 109 

Around the Camp-fire 113 

Paddling Indian Canoes with Single Blade . 
Stranded ........ 

A War Canoe ' • 12 

The Club-house i?. 

Diagram of Tent i;3 

Ring in the Nobler Modes of Life . . . . . i:7 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 



r^ERNEGROSS lay at the foot of the dock 
steps ; tins, tent, rubber beds, blankets 
— the whole camping outfit of three people 
for six weeks — under her bright decks and 
in the twelve canvas bags hung by genius 
around her tiny cockpit. 

The Captain descended to the rear seat, 
and jointed his paddle. His wife sat down 
in the middle, and jointed hers. Their lit- 
tle boy scrambled to the front and gathered 
up the steering-lines. 

" But you have not told us your route 
yet," complained one on the dock. 

The three smiled up into the faces bent 
over the cockle-shell of a boat in envy, 
amusement, contempt, anxiety. And the 
Captain answered, " My dear people, except 
for the canoe meet on Willsborough Point 



2 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

at the full of the August moon, we haven '1 
any plans." 

The paddles slanted. " Good - bye !' 
"God by 'e!" 

We were out in the current. Behind us 
arose voices, as of the life we were leaving 
But the north wind sweeping the great rivei 
cried louder in our ears of the life beginnings 
as we passed beyond sight of the waving 
handkerchiefs, and came up with the bridge 
boat Susie, moored to a pier underneath the 
mammoth bridge. 

The pilot looked out of his window, 

" Well, sir, there's no telling when the 
tow '11 be up, with this wind against it. 
Hadn't you better come aboard Y' 

And aboard — fit beginning of a journey 
without plan — we spent the afternoon. Th' 
flame of an iron- furnace reddened on the 
changing sky, the last sunshine made a 
light-and-shade mosaic upon the western 
hills, and chapel bells were knolling to 
prayer, when a cry rose up, " The tow !" 

Huge, shadowy, it came crawling on in 
the dusk, a line of forty canal-boats with 
two tugs ahead. Away steamed the Susie to 
meet it, drew up broadside with the last boat 



4 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

of the fleet, the Delaphine-of -Windsor, set us 
aboard, and made off with a friendly salute. 

We peered into the shadows. Near us a 
thin woman stood with folded arms at the 
head of her cabin stairs. A dark girl stared 
from the next boat. Beyond were more 
faces, and a grotesque jumble of cabin roofs 
and poles and nameless things on the un- 
gainly decks far out towards the snorting 
tugs. The city lights were slipping behind. 
Already we were part of another life — a life 
which, passing us year after year upon the 
summer river, was yet as unknown as life 
upon Ganges or Nile. And we were stirred 
by that sense of the new which makes the 
delight of childhood ; aye, and of manhood, 
too; though men, in their little paddocks 
of pleasure or duty or thought, lament to 
Heaven that the days are dull. 

" The party that's to go to Troy with us ?" 
spoke up the thin woman, with a glimmer 
of a smile. " If you like, ma'am, I'll show 
you below." 

She dipped under the cabin roof. As we 
saw in the lamplight her young face with 
its pale hair and eyes, we seemed to find her 
spirit, like her gown, faded but immaculate. 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 5 

" Here's your room." And with a prim, 
delightful little air of doing all things " prop- 
er," she pushed open a door. The state- 
room might, indeed, be termed snug; but 
so tidy was it that, as we looked back into 
the cabin, and saw the range in a recess, and 
shelves of tins over it, and the covered table, 
and curtained windows, and plants growing, 
and pictures, and the clock, and the bird- 
cage, it appeared unreasonable, not to say 
absurd, that a man should ever ask for more 
than this ; except, perhaps, upon a rare oc- 
casion — say, the Thanksgiving dinner of a 
large family. 

We took seats in the cabin— all of us, in- 
cluding the captain of the Delaphine-of- 
Windsor, who came stepping to his place 
with a heed fulness in every muscle gratify- 
ing to see in a man. He was a well-built 
Yankee, with a shrewd, manly look, his em- 
browned face and tarnished black curls set 
off by a shirt of yellow with scarlet patches. 

Looking from one to another of us, he 
said, in a musical drawl, " Goin' on the water 
for a vacation ? Sacred Peter !" 

" Where would you go T asked Ger7ie- 
grosss captain. 



o A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

"Why, on a picnic, in the woods— any 
place where a man could be 07i the landr 

After that, conversation flowed on as be- 
tween persons mutually interesting. 

The people ? All steady Americans, 'cept 
them Canucks next door. That girl and 
her brother had been on the water all their 
lives, and now they were running the boat 
alone ; and the father was a rich man on 
Lake Champlain. 

Business good } Waal, not in these times. 
Easy life.? Sometimes. Plague of it was, 
it was so easy part o' the time, a man hadn't 
strength for the tough work when it did 
come— the loadin'and unloadin'at the ends 
o' the trips. 

"It must be pleasant, though," we thought, 
"and safe." 

He smiled. "Waal, moderately. If a line 
don't slacken when a man's crossin' it. Or 
you don't happen to be the last boat. Of a 
dark night. In the city." Between each 
clause he stopped, and at the end he gath- 
ered his knee into his arms, and tipped back 
his chair. 

"Six months ago. About three o' the 
mornin'. A tug run intew the last boat. 



» A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

An old boat, it was. Sunk inside of tew 
minutes. The people ? Waal, there was fa- 
ther and mother and tew children. Three 
o' them got clear. All 'cept the baby. Then 
the man dove. Ten foot plumb down. 
Never expected to see him again. He went 
raight intew the cabing — the ruflf had come 
clean off — and grabbed the baby out o' the 
berth. First thing we see, up come the 
baby's head out o' the water." 

When, late, we went upon deck and be- 
held the dazzle of the Milky Way, and, 
sprawling beneath it, the black company of 
boats marked off by tiny windows and 
drowsy deck lanterns, and near us Gerne- 
gross, with her cosey secrets covered up in 
canvas, over all there seemed brooding that 
spirit of mystery and of danger which quick- 
ens an adventure. Then an accordion 
sounded, and led rough young voices in a 
chorus — wild, defiant, plaintive. It came 
from the French girl's cabin, and through 
her window we saw her face under the meek 
face of the Virgin. 

At five of the morning, mounting our 
stairs, we found the men and boys of the 
fleet splitting wood, and pumping with the 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP g 

aid of long elastic saplings, and at each 
cabin stove-pipe the smoky streamer of the 
lady getting breakfast below. The sky was 
streaked with faint cirrus clouds, and glow- 
ing eastward. On our right, the City of 
Hudson lay ramparted by sedges. On our 
left, the village of Athens — locally A-thens 
— showed embowered lanes. Still farther 
westward, the Catskills lifted their " slopes 
full of slumber." 

The stir of breakfast over, we glided on 
like an enchanted caravan, lulled by a gur- 
gling as of rushing brooks between the 
boats. The men, in groups, hugged their 
knees on the cabin roofs or lay on elbow 
along the decks. On the Maria Bagwell a 
stout woman sat with folded arms under a 
yellow umbrella. Beyond her, on the Ange- 
liiie Allore, a baby ran upon the cabin roof, 
waving its arms, and threatening, the live- 
long hours, to tumble into the river. Still 
farther on, two children swung ceaselessly 
in a hammock. The French girl, after 
shrilly quarrelling with her tall brother, 
made quick work of her dishes, and took 
her place upon the cabin stairs. Our little 
boy went a-fishing, a rope tied around his 



lO A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

waist. His father roused some excitement 
by swinging, camera on back, from boat to 
boat. Our hostess did her washing, with 
her model husband working the machine 
and putting up poles and lines. Presently 
he came to smile at the picketed little boy. 

" But do the children never fall in ?" We 
pointed to the lurching baby. 

He laughed. " No ; they get used to it." 

As we drew near Albany, noisy little tugs, 
mounting each a gilt eagle or a cock, began 
to surround the fleet. Their captains, the 
gentry of boatmen, better dressed and lord- 
lier than the canallers, came on board, and 
there was a mighty haggling over the price 
of a tow to Troy. The D elaphine-of -Wind- 
sor s bargain made, her tug travelled beside 
us, its engineer advising Gernegross s cap- 
tain concerning the best methods of ob- 
taining power from steam, and its hand- 
some young pilot apparently lost in some 
" Dream of Fair Women " as he stood with 
his hand on the wheel and his eyes on ihe 
horizon. 

Then, in the late afternoon, in a gathering 
mist, arose gray before us the spires and 
domes of Albany. What is there in this 



12 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

first glimpse of a dim city, be it New York, 
Antwerp, or Rome, to move one ? Why, at 
the sight, is the heart fit to break ? What 
instinct says, " At last ?" Is the vision, may- 
hap, prototype of a heavenly vision, at sight 
of which, some day, we shall cry, " Home?" 

But what has happened to our enchanted 
caravan? Here are shouts, calls ; men run- 
ning, ropes flinging; boats parting, swinging 
out in great curves ; tugs, puffing in between 
them, making fast their convoys. We, alone, 
are drifting backward down the river. 

" What's this mean ?" cries the captain of 
the Delaphine-of-lViJidsor to the dreamful 
pilot. 

" Now don't be excited, cap'n. I'll have 
you there as soon as the best of 'em. You've 
no cause to go and get mad." 

The captain smokes, and is sulky. Perch- 
ed along the cabin roof, we await the result. 

Veritably, we are passing all our friends ! 
The French girl stares after us, the stout 
lady turns to look, the baby screams, the 
girls in the hammock sit up — we are by, we 
are under the bridge, only one boat ahead 
of us ! But to her a second tug makes fast. 

" Let her run !" cries our pilot. " That 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 1 5 

thing couldn't pull a settin' hen off her 
nest !" 

On we forge in the rain, past Albany, be- 
tween dim shores. Inch by inch we gain on 
our rival. Who suspects the rapture of a 
canal-boat race ? Our brave little tug pants, 
throbs — with a toot, a shout, we are by, and 
swing, first, into the lock at West Troy ! 

We look across to lighted Troy, rising 
mysteriously in the darkness, while our boat- 
man's wife confides to us that she is glad to 
be out of the river, where she never feels 
safe, and to be going home. Then some- 
thing gives way before us, and we pass out ; 
and lie moored until a driver is engaged and 
clearance papers are secured from the col- 
lector's office, to the " master for this present 
passage " of the " boat, canoe Gernegrossy 

And now we begin to move slowly up the 
canal. Plainly, here is no chance for camp- 
ing. We go below. But all through the 
night we are conscious of the plodding 
mules ; of the bargee at the heavy tiller, 
throwing his whole weight upon it at some 
curve ; of a shout at intervals, " Ye-ho, lock !" 
and the faint answer from the lockman ahead, 
" Aye, aye ! " 



l6 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 



Most people think a canal is a line of 
black ooze, which crawls at the rear of fac- 
tories and past the door-yards of scurvy 
cabins, their refuse on its banks, and their 
reek in its water. 

But he who wanders with it knows that a 
canal is a stream curving to the heart of 
meadow and wood ; that the towpath is a 
grassy fringe ; the heel-path a tangle of clem- 
atis, asters, golden - rod ; that the white 
bridges and the clouds and the trees above 
him look up again from beneath him, so that 
he floats between ; that weirs make falling 
music ; that now he is borne across a brook, 
now high over the current of a river. 

Early in the morning our friends of the 
Delaphine- of- Windsor lowered Gernegross 
as though she were an egg-shell, and helped 
down her people. They said little ; but 
their eyes questioned her to the next bend. 



^: 







A FAMILY CANOE TRIP IQ 

So the children of the Old World, it may be, 
eyed Ulysses's vanishing craft. 

After the rain the land sparkled — happy 
farms upon the plain, overwatched by a line 
of northward-southward trending hills, and 
by towering cloud cumuli. " We of the sky 
send greeting," meadow-larks piped down. 
" Hurrah!" the little boy shouted back. 
Then he sang to our paddling, " Isn't it jolly 
to be all alone ?" We thought it was — alone 
with life and love, and naught superfluous. 
We, best, knew it to be rare. Had we not 
at home drawn bolts upon the world, and 
still found it before us at the hearth, bab- 
bling ? 

Mowers stopped their whirring machines 
to gaze after us. Now we passed a house ; 
a smiling woman ran out, and, with a pro- 
priety that savored of genius, waved a tea- 
pot in honor of domesticity afloat. Sudden- 
ly a meditative party of mules and a man 
appeared upon the towpath, for harbingers; 
then a clum.sy round prow, as of a Spanish 
galleon, loomed around a curve and came on 
— slow, inevitable. The family aboard ran 
together to stare at us. Our camera stood 
ready ; and we fixed it all — mules, boat, and 



20 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

people — against an exquisite curve of the 
bank. 

•' Hi ! look at the toy boat !" cried a girl, 
running with a baby from a group of cot- 
tages. More children followed her ; and the 
train, trotting beside us, brought us with 
distinction to our first lock. 

The lock store stood at one side. Tins, 
pails, brooms, yellow oilers dangling like de- 
funct seamen, ornamented the porch ; and 
upon a slab set up like a tombstone was 
this inscription: "Tea, coffee, sugar, spices, 
flour, crackers, lard, pork, fish, starch, cheese, 
kerosene, tobacco, boots and shoes, MILK." 
Dominic Dumas had his name writ above 
the door. He proved to be a genial old 
Irishman, befogged, at sight of us, with 
wonder. 

"Ain't ye 'feared ye'U drown thim young 
wans ?" he called down from the lever. 
" Och, aye, I'll let ye up aisy !" 

The black gates swung open with a silent 
invitation. We entered. They closed be- 
hind us. Blocks of green, polished, slimy 
stone rose ten feet on either side. A boy 
caught the rope we threw, and passed it 
around a post chafed by many ropes into 



i*? 




A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 23 

the semblance of a South American idol. 
The cataract pouring over the upper gates 
slackened. And, with a roar, a dozen 
streams came forcing up from below in 
whirlpools that boiled over against each 
other, and spread back, and caught at Ger7ie- 
gross, and rocked and swung her, and strain- 
ed her rope, and filled the place with foam, 
and flung up spray, and shouted riotously. 
But the stanch little thing rose steadily un- 
til she lay at the coping-stone, and bore us 
out into a land that, after that tumult, looked 
more than ever like a happy vision. While 
Dominic Dumas called after us : 

'' Where ye goin' ? Glens Falls ? Ye'll be 
whiles gettin' there, thin !" 

Paddling on, we thought of weariness ; 
then forgot it, and, an hour after, found 
ourselves fresh again. That is the advan- 
tage of paddling. There is no strain. The 
muscles soon play of themselves to the 
rhythm. Each day there is less effort in the 
lazy motion, until one fancies one might fall 
asleep, and still keep paddling on. 

At the next lock, in the joy of our hearts, 
we delivered over our purse to the little boy. 
The store being thus open to him, he and 



24 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

the obsequious lock -man brought out a 
treasure of bananas, peanuts, gumdrops, and 
root-beer. Which dehcacies supplementing 
our locker, we nooned upon a sightly knoll. 

That afternoon we varied paddling with 
towing. It allowed of more intercourse with 
the people we met; and of the traveller's 
play. *' Can you tell us the name of those 
hills ?" we would ask. " Dunno'," would be 
the usual answer. But one canal-man told 
us, "You won't think much o' them little 
things when you see the big ones up yan- 
der." And a young farmer " ruther guessed 
they were some belongin's of the Green 
Mountings." 

We became acquainted with our fellow- 
travellers, the mule - drivers ^ — " Father 
Tom," and " Long Level," and " Teddy Tim- 
ber-Toe," and " Spavined Tim " — men crip- 
pled, maimed, the very drift and wreckage 
of society. In face they were less moral 
than the mules they drove : now a sallow 
Yankee with a hint of lost estate in his un- 
quiet eyes; now an all-brutal, shaggy for- 
eigner. " They are a rough lot," a canal- 
man had told us, " but they'll not harm 
you." We found them civil, even obliging. 







^,'^:'p% 




A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 27 

But they whacked their beasts viciously, vi- 
tuperated one another in passing, and were 
blots upon the idyllic land. 

It was still early afternoon, while we were 
skirting a wood, that a quiet basin opened 
to us. Around it the trees rose tier on tier, 
and along their tops ran a whisper of invi- 
tation. Gernegross heard. Dragon - flies 
guided her to a dam and a water-fall and a 
ruined mill-wheel. 

And now, with the explorer's ardor upon 
us, we ran about to find a clearing and the 
two trees for the tent. Quickly it was 
pitched, and, before the door, the table set 
with each man's complement of tins. Then, 
in a hollow lined with leaves, dry wood was 
heaped, and stakes set up, and our kettle 
swung on its chain, and an incense of cocoa 
and broiling ham sent up to the fauns and 
dryads. 

" The flapjack," proclaimed our captain 
then, " is the appropriate beginning of 
camp cookery. And I am he who can 
flap it !" 

Fine to hear was the little boy's shriek as 
each cake fell over in the pan. But let no 
epicure dream that a recipe can impart the 



28 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

secret of that flavor. For it the gypsy fire 
is needed — and the canoist's appetite. 

As to how we rested : we had meant to 
lie and listen to the night sounds, to peep 
out and see the stars wheel, and surprise the 
trees at their gossip. But, inadvertently, 
we closed our eyes — and the tent was yel- 
low with morning light. 

As we went on up the canal the hills 
dropped behind us. Then, one noon, the 
first peak of the Adirondacks appeared at 
the north, and summoned his brothers, and 
they rose along the horizon, and by sunset 
stood guarding their solitudes. They had 
no friendly welcome for us. They sent a 
storm which chased away our golden weath- 
er. The land lay deserted, and we had it 
with the wet cows, and the birds calling 
back and forth. Why do people dislike to 
be out in the rain } The air is at its freshest ; 
the senses are lulled by the monotony of 
sweet sounds and of quiet tints. The doc- 
tors should prescribe a rain cure for Ameri- 
can nerves, where the patients shall sit apart 
in flannels and mackintoshes and listen to 
the rain. 

Next, the Glens Falls' feeder gave us its 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 29 

thirteen successive locks to climb, while the 
land fell a hundred and fifty feet behind 
us. And then a strong tide detained us, 
and kept us swinging around curves a full 
hour after we had descried the roofs and 
spires of Glens Falls against the cloudy 
mountains. 

But when Ger?tegross had been borne in 
a triumphal procession to the hotel stable, 
and we had gone that evening to watch the 
work of the huge illuminated lumber-mill, 
from its hoisting the log out of the black 
water to its devil's dance of the saws over 
the white plank, it was then that we caught, 
at last, a whisper — a message — the voice of 
the Adirondacks : 

" If storm, if toil, if weariness cannot 
daunt you, we count you worthy. Come up 
to the hills !" 



30 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 



III 



We left Glens Falls in state — Gernegross 
billowed upon a cart, and her crew bestow- 
ed in a phaeton— and went clumping along 
a fine plank-road into " the dark and dan- 
gerous pass to Lake George." 

Instead of Indians, there were tots of farm- 
ers' children offering us peaches and ap- 
ples; one perched upon a horse-post, one 
reading demurely behind a tiny table — 
choice pictures for our camera. And now 
the hills, their purple dofifed, rose to west 
and north in rugged undress. " You have 
come !" they said to us. " Receive of our 
exultant life." The pines mounted crag on 
crag in the sunshine. Over the valley fall- 
ing eastward circled an eagle. Crows cawed. 
Little birds in thicket twittered, ''Tee-wee, 
tee-wee, wee-wee-wee." 

A light upon the plain— a sheet of blue — 
" The lake !" Rattling down into the village 




liiiitiiu uj hidiiifis 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 33 

of Caldwell, we circled the Indian encamp- 
ment — where the little boy sold his heart to 
dark maidens for bows and arrows and 
mimic canoes — passed a street of hotels, and 
came out upon the shore. 

Spirits of the brave ! Had they gone up 
in slaughter but to return to earth again, as 
Orient teaches ? and did we see them in that 
gala armament, in those maidens in blouses, 
those trig youths, those children and nurses 
and loiterers to hotel music ? 

" Then how are the mighty fallen I" 
thought that little savage, Gerjiegross, with 
an ache in her side for the cool plunge. A 
workman dropped his can, a gentleman with 
a noble gray head came from his launch^ 
and both helped her in. 

" You will find canoists all the way," said 
the gentleman. " They are drawing to their 
Meet, you know. Diamond Island," he 
pointed northward, " is your nearest and 
best camp." And he and his ladies waved 
us bo7i voyage. 

The hotels, the little boats, the villas of 
nook and knoll, were left behind. Sunset 
came. Azure and golden and crimson lights 
of the sky, pink and pale purple shapes of 



34 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

the horizon, near mountains, islands — all 
were mirrored in the pure and tranquil 
water. And sound of convent bells — real 
convent bells — came to us on breaths of 
cedar and pine. This was Father Jogues's 
" Holy Lake ;" and we floated on, ravished 
by its beauty. 

" Here we are ! Let me out ! Hurrah !" 
shouted the little boy, capering along the 
rocks like the "Last of the Mohicans" him- 
self. 

" Father, here's a landing, a really, truly 
one ! And, mother, Fve found a camp al- 
ready — all pine prickers, so deep !" 

Happy sight of a child's joy in the " suf- 
ficing face of nature !" Nor shall the one 
over whom it broods like face of mother be 
lightly taken by the vulgar or evil lures of 
life. So we landed ; and presently supped, 
with a white tent across on the main-land 
for company. And early asleep, alas ! still 
caught, in dreams, snatches of the songs of 
passing rowers. 

When we awoke, two small cedars were 
decorating our walls with dancing shadows. 
Then said our captain, "To-day we sail!" 
Contrary to all traditions of camping, on 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 37 

that morning we slighted breakfast, and 
stowed our duffle hastily. While yet it was 
early, we cut our sapling mast, set our 
square sail like a Norse galley's, and to the 
chorus, " For it's up with the bonnets of 
bonny Dundee," shot from Diamond Isl- 
and. 

For the honor of the thing, we put out 
trolling lines. But who could mope for fish 
with that ripple along the keel, and that 
soughing in the ear.? Instead, our sailing 
grew to a quest for the most beautiful island. 
In the afternoon we found it, and camped 
upon it. And there, in the idyllic days that 
followed — it is the secret of our trip — we 
built our summer cottage. We put the play- 
ground at one end, where the blissful chil- 
dren might play in freedom among the 
rocks ; at the other, upon an inaccessible 
crag, the study. For the rest, it combines 
the beauty of each cottage on the lake with 
others all its own. You shall surely know 
it by this token— never is a headache nor a 
heartache there. 

At we heard of Mr, Windham. 

"Camp at High Point to-night," a hotel- 
keeper told us. " My brother is in charge 



3S A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

of a cottage there, and he's always glad to 
make it handy for campers." 

A kindred spirit ! We took to the paddles, 
and at dusk drew near to a cape that was 
sombre with darkling pines. On a rock, his 
hands in his pockets, stood a thin, smiling 
man. 

" That's it ! Right in here," he called. 
" Felt it in my bones there'd be campers 
here to-night ! That pavilion there, sir, is a 
tent, floored to your hand. And up at the 
cottage, ma'am, I've a fire at your service." 

Seated in a rocking-chair at the cottage, 
he cheerily explained to us how he "usually 
kept things pretty well picked up; but last 
night he thought the dishes might as well 
lie till mornin'. And then this mornin' he 
sort o' took a notion to go fishin' " — surely 
it explained itself. Mr. Windham clearly 
was a bit of a genius, with gentle interests 
peopling the solitudes of his life. He was 
full of stories and legends of the lake ; of 
Roger's slide and the Mohican maiden, and 
the French and Indian battles ; of Hunt, the 

hermit artist; and of , the romantic 

hotel-keeper of Black Mountain. 

" I've lived in these parts twenty years," 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 41 

he said, " and it don't look a bit the worse. 
No, I've never been to New York. I sup- 
pose a man might be there weeks and not 
see it all. One thing I would like to see, 
though, and that's the World's Fair at Chee- 
cawgo. But I don't suppose I'll get to it." 

Neither did we suppose so, when, a few 
mornings later, we left him on his shore. 
We thought he would continue rocking in 
his chair, and " sort o' takin' notions to go 
fishin'" instead of washing up the dishes; 
with longings stirring him only pleasantly 
the while to " see things." 

That was a sublime dark day, meet for the 
sailing of the Narrows. With the clouds 
dragging the sides of the mountains, and a 
gale driving us swiftly on, the strait might 
have been a wild Northern fiord. We ran 
in at Hague for supplies, nooned upon an 
island, and afterwards crossed the lake, and 
went hugging the eastern cliffs as only ca- 
noists can, gathering red and orange lich- 
ens, and ferns and harebells from the ledges. 
Presently we heard the ring of an axe, and, 
rounding a point, came upon an old black- 
ened farm-house in a lonesome spot at the 
foot of a mountain ; and upon the axeman. 



42 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

who looked uncomfortably like a bandit, 
until he smiled and said : 

" Camp ? Right here, sir, or anywhere 
about, just as you like. Cut down whatever 
you want." 

The sky threatening now, we hurried the 
tent up, and had everything under cover by 
the time the rain began. Then, inside, we 
lighted our small alcohol stove, and opened 
a can of clam chowder, and supper was 
steaming when we heard voices. Lifting our 
tent flap, we saw, out in the twilight, two 
barelegged sturdy little fellows from the 
farm-house, rain-drops falling from their 
torn hat-brims. 

We fell to converse with them. School.^ 
Just over that mounting. They liked it best 
in winter, 'cause more boys went then, and 
it was more fun ; and then they took sleds 
and slid down, one way goin' and another 
way comin'. Fish ? Lots just around there. 
Jim Stone, up to Ti, knew all the places. 
Worms ? Yes, sir ; they'd dig 'em, and have 
'em ready in the mornin'. Good-night ! 

The rain had ceased. The woods were 
still. Looking out for a last picture of water 
and mountain and sky, we beheld, over Ger- 



•^ 




A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 45 

7ieg7'oss in her cove, a token — the boat of 
heaven, the new moon, her prow Hfted to 
ride the skyey waves. Our time was up on 
the " Lake of the Blessed Sacrament." 



46 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 



IV 



Lake George grows less clear as it be- 
gins to flow into Ticonderoga Creek — first 
a reedy stream, then five leaps to great 
Champlain. Paper-mills hide the falls- 
Down the descending curve straggles Ticon- 
deroga village. 

An inhabitant, whose business was to 
"dicker in wegetables," navigated Geriie- 
gross down the dusty main street. Was it 
only the mid-day heat that dulled the eyes 
of women at windows, and of sitters on hotel 
steps? Even at those life centres, the gro- 
cery store and the post-office, the pulse of 
" Ti " beat low. World-weariness was upon 
her, and upon us when we came again to 
the creek. 

Once the water there floated war-vessels, 
the " dickerer in wegetables " said. Now it 
was very shallow. But Geniegross slipped 
in, never so glad and never so pretty. Lily- 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 47 

pads netted across her way. We wound our 
arms down the long stems, drew them up, 
and with hlies heaped and crowned her. 
The water deepened. The air freshened. 
The afternoon mellowed with opalescent 
lights. And earth was once again " the gar- 
den of the Lord " when we entered " the 
Lake that is the Gate of the Country." 

" Here we are ! These are the heights of 
Carillon. The French named them from 
the chiming water-falls, you remember. And 
that ruin above, my boy, that — " 

" Oh, father, I know ! Fort — Fort — " 
" But you'll tip the boat over !" 
"Oh, mother, don't tell me ! It's Ti — Ti 
— Titaitgeroga f H u rrah ! ' ' 

At a strip of beach below the fort lay a 
boat of deep-sea blue. Floating by and 
slowly skirting Carillon, we looked up. 
Watching us from a crag was a gentleman 
in gray boating suit and cap; behind him 
a tent flying the Stars and Stripes. 
We rested on our paddles. 
" Any place for a camp up there ?" 
The gentleman descended — lithe, sun- 
burnt, with a smile beaming from one blue 
eye and whimsical wrinkles closing the 



4b A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

Other, as though the sun were too much for 
both at once. 

" Yes, sir ; very good. We have found a 
pleasant spot up under those trees, as you 
see. And beyond us, under the two oaks, 
is another." 

" I beheve I will go up." 

The two scrambled away together. A 
moment, and down the rocks came, "All 
right !" 

The gentleman — Professor H , of 

College — had camped many summers on 
Lakes George and Champlain, and in the 
Adirondacks. Camping last year, he had 
met his wife. And now they were upon their 
wedding-tour. " Visiting our old haunts," 
he said, with a gesture around, and that 
charming, one-eyed smile. Up at his tent 
there was a look of old campers— a rustic 
table with tins, camp-chairs, and, last luxury 
of camp life, a stove-top set upon stones, 
with a length of pipe pouring forth smoke 
and sparks. 

"Just make free with our fire," said the 
Professor, 

Then, with great kindness and agility, he 
helped tote up our luggage. As coffee 







If- 



I .t 






■Mr "* j^* 



f 



if 






A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 5 1 

Steamed and steak broiled, we advanced in 
acquaintance — ladies, by way of the wea- 
ther and the view ; gentlemen, by the ab- 
sorbing, vital way of boats, tents, fishing. 
And when our own little house was ready, 
and we were supping before it, dreamily we 
smiled upon each other, 

" Oh, rest ye, brother mariners, we will not wander more." 

The next day was the phenomenal hot day 
of the summer. Even on the heights of 
Carillon it was hot. The morning began 
with a calamity. As our breakfast pot was 
sweet to the nostrils, the little boy, sniffing, 
begged to stir. Alas ! no rock-balanced pot 
could out-sit that childish energy. A stir too 
hard — and our breakfast was hurrying fifty 
feet sheer down, the little boy crying out, 
we staring hungrily after it. Eating in camp 
is not the flimsy matter it is at home. The 
whole day hangs upon the three pegs of 
breakfast, dinner, and supper. 

The heat told upon the company. Only 
the good Professor went and came upon his 
errands, an ideal camper, bringing in a load 
of brushwood as though stepping to ecstatic 
music. The little boy, in airy costume of 



52 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

trunks and life-preserver, went swimming. 
Then the Professor, in duck suit and over- 
shoes, came down to wash his boat. Then 
the Captain came down with an Adirondack 
map, and the two men sat planning trips, 
while little snipe — "tip-ups" the Professor 
called them — ran along the sand. A king- 
fisher flapped near; a herd of cows de- 
scended the hills, and stood udder-deep in 
the lake. 

But towards evening the vv^ind that lives at 
Carillon awoke, and thenceforth never failed 
us. Energy revived. A walk to the fort 
was planned. 

As we entered the Professor's camp a 
stranger sat there — a bronzed, cadaverous 
man, with wrinkles like ruts, and glassy 
black eyes. He wore a checked yellow suit, 
a green necktie, a wide slouched hat, and 
carried a gray cotton umbrella tied with 
twine. 

" Yes, sir, it lays right there !" he was say- 
ing. " Ain't more'n six feet of water over 
it. A brass six-inch cannon !" 

" Dear me !" cried the Professor, rubbing 
his hands. " I'd like to get it out, first-rate ! 
first-rate ! We'll locate it. My friend Gen- 



M'f 



^.-^^ir'^. 




O/i, rest ye, brother Jiiariners " 



54 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

eral W will go in for it I'm sure. And 

we'll hire a diver, and have it out !" 

"Around in the crick," continued the stran- 
ger, "lays a ship sunk. A pay ship. Mill- 
ions aboard. She was almost took. And 
the British cap'n, he scuttled her. There's 
a man in New York sends a gang of men up 
every summer to dig for her. He's sunk 
$25,000 a'ready. But that brass cannon" — 
he contemptuously turned his back upon 
the gentlemen — "that I've seen myself." 
He threw a tantalizing glance back over his 
shoulder. " Water ain't more'n six foot 
over it !" 

Then, gallantly, he addressed himself to 
the ladies. " Plenty of sceneries around 
here," with a sweep of the umbrella. " Up 
there" — he took aim at Mount Independ- 
ence — " is one scenery." 

" How I should like to climb it !" said the 
Professor's wife. " But are you sure there 
are no snakes there ?" 

"Snakes/" The eyes of the stranger 
emitted yellow gleams. " It's full — chock- 
full — of rattlesnakes !" 

" Oh !" cried the Professor's wife. 

" And this time of year, in the dog-days, 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 55 

they're blind. And when they're blind, 
they're fierce, ma'am, fierce I Then there's 
adders ; and there's mountain-racers. They 
chase a man. Run as fast as he can. Only 
way to 'scape 'em is to dodge 'em. They 
just whip around a man's middle, snap into 
a bow-knot, and squ-ee-ze him dead !" 

No eye of ancient mariner ever glittered 
more. The grewsome stranger plucked a 
handful of grass and chevv^ed at it with an 
unnatural relish, as though it were his com- 
mon diet. 

" There's a man I know — Tim Toby. Last 
winter he was sot to blast out foundation- 
stone for the new mill up to Ti. Clearin' 
out rubbish from the foot of the ledge, he 
dropped in dynamite catridges. And, sir, 
she blew out — snakes ! A great heap ; all 
kinds; 278 of 'em. Hed crawled in to 
winter. Well, sir, Tim lit out for Ti. Never 
stopped for his tools. As white " — the stran- 
ger looked down over his paper collar — "as 
my shirt. And sezee to the owners, ' I took 
that contract to get out iown^^cCion-stone. I 
didn't calklate you wanted to build your 
mill of snakes!' " 

"My dear, you are pale," said the Pro- 



56 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

fessor, rousing from his dream of finding the 
cannon. " The heat has been too much for 
you. Come, to the fort ! I suppose, sir " — 
as we all started up the hill — " relics are still 
dug here ?" 

" Hev been. But now it's agin the law. 
Except you be a redskin. They can dig and 
chop down anywhere." 

" Do you mean to say the Indians can 
come and dig in our gardens at home }" 

" Anywhere in the hull land, ma'am. Put 
down so in the treaty. And any court in 
the land '11 uphold 'em in it !" 

We wound around under the grassy ram- 
parts hung with tangle of hawthorn and 
wild-grape. We stopped to look into the 
choked well. Then, as we gained the sum- 
mit of the breastworks, our eyes went from 
the little plain at our feet, once bustling 
with military life, out over the great lake, to 
the ridges of those Green Mountains whence 
came the immortal " Boys." 

"They stole across that locust -covered 
flat," explained our Professor. " They came 
climbing this little winding way. Down 
there must be where the sentinel snapped 
his musket at Ethan Allen, missing fire. 





f% 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 5g 

And here — j^es, here must be where he made 
his entrance into the commandant's cham- 
ber; and when asked in whose name he 
demanded surrender, cried, ' In the name 
of the Great Jehova hand the Continental 
Congress !' " 

We scattered about the parade-ground, 
where the wind was in the thistle and the 
velvet mullein ; then went defiling through 
a roofless passage. 

" Here was their oven." The stranger 
pointed to a blackened spot. " Where they 
put in a hull beef. Good cement they made 
in them days," knocking down a bit with 
his umbrella. " French brick, you see. Ah, 
the France French are a fine nation, whether 
for settin' the styles, or for buildin' houses ; 
the only really ingenious nation on the face 
of the earth. Fm three-quarters France 
French myself." 

Through a window, whose sill was yellow 
with buttercups, we could see little gabled 
houses in Ti sending up tinted smoke; a 
charmed, tender picture, framed by ruin and 
decay. 

But the rest had gone crawling along a 
way half filled with new-fallen rubbish. We 



6o A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

found them sitting, thoughtful, around a 
hole. 

" It is a shame the country lets it crumble," 
the Captain was saying. " A few more years, 
frosts, storms, and the site — perhaps the 
very name — will be forgotten." 

" And yet the part it played !" said the 
Professor. " That surrender did more than 
any one thing to hearten the country, as she 
began her struggle. It took away the fear 
of invasion by way of Canada, and it pinned 
the people's faith to that little council called 
the 'Continental Congress.' Yes, there was 
genius in that cry of Ethan Allen's. But — 
though it isn't told in history — he died a 
pauper, and his grave is unknown." 

When we came back to the little white 
tents on the cliff, we were in quiet mood. 

But the wind was not. 

" Do you suppose the tents will stand it ?" 
our Captain called down the hill the last 
thing that night. 

A dim figure, upon its knees in the camp 
below, answered, " Oh yes ; I am only tight- 
ening my lanyards. Good-night." 

Ghosts of that long struggle for the " Lake 
that is the Gate of the Country," were they 



~1 




At the Fort 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 63 

all abroad, shrieking their old cries? Hu- 
rons; Algonquins, Five Nations, their fury? 
Soldiers — French, English, American — their 
agony, defeat, triumph ? Now singly ; now- 
joining, swelling, to one awful cry — must not 
the sky crash, pass, let in the great Revela- 
tion ? A lull, and the crickets, and the creak- 
ing pendulum of a tree-toad — 

And a voice, " The tent is down !" 

We sat erect. 

" The pole hit me square on the head." 
But the laugh was reassuring. 

We thought. The wind howled. 

" What time is it ?" 

" Three o'clock." 

There came a gust that bellied the folds 
about us. 

'* I believe," hesitated the Captain, "we 
might — almost — leave her as she is — for the 
rest of the night." 

"Do!" For it was drear to think of 
struggling, deserted of Heaven, with the 
poles and the wind on the brink of the cliff. 
"There is air enough, and room enough; 
and not half as much noise as there was 
before. If only" — looking down on a small 
bundle — ''he won't be frightened." 



64 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

" What's the matter?" said a sleepy little 
voice. And then, " Ho, ho ! isn't it jolly !" 

So our tent arose when the sun did. 

Later, the Professor came with his oars 
over one shoulder and his stove-pipe over 
the other, to start a search for relics. 

" But why the stove-pipe ?" 

With dignity and solemnity he answered : 
" Through a pipe put down in the water, 
one can see the bottom. We're going to 
locate that brass cannon." 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 65 



The brass cannon was never located. 
Even the good Professor began to fear that 
the stranger might be " one of those unfort- 
unate beings who have an abnormal natal 
tendency, strongly developed by circum- 
stances, to misrepresent the truth." 

Meanwhile, in heaven widened the Au- 
gust moon. 

So that one morning, when the winds 
were favoring, Gernegross received her quota 
and spread her sail ; while the Professor and 
his wife ran up the hill and along the clifT, 
and from the topmost parapet of Carillon 
waved us salutes up the lake. 

Great, empty, silent lake! In the days 
before railroads it used to be alive with 
dockyards, sailors, ships. Now, as we went 
speeding northward, we saw but one other 
sail — that of the lazy ferry-scow laden with 
meditative cows. The Adirondacks, phan- 



66 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

tasm of misty heights and passes, went with 
us on the west. On the east, the substan- 
tial but unused stone warehouses of shipping 
times gave to the shore that last lonesome- 
ness — of the abandoned track of man. The 
passion and stir of life were left to the pale 
green waters with their rhythmic sw-is-sh, 
and to the writhing vapors overhead. 

Had we lived in another age, we had felt 
sure, that afternoon, that the gods were pur- 
suing us. For when the clouds had threat- 
ened long, suddenly an ink -black circle 
overhung us, mingled all shapes in sulphur- 
ous light, and fell in gray, pitiless downpour. 
But we only took to mackintoshes. 

Whereupon, again the circle formed. We 
crept forward to unship our mast. With a 
roar, a gale lashed up the lake and rushed 
on Gernegross. But she lifted her saucy 
bow, rode the big waves, and danced atop ; 
while the little boy laughed : " The water 
maidens are kissing me !" 

So we triumphed. And the gods owned 
it; and shut up the wind; and smoothed 
the lake till it lay like burnished steel ; and 
hung red banners in the sky; and brought 
us, weary mariners, to a sunset land, where 



68 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

rose a pavilion with the flag of the A. C. A. 
(which is American Canoe Association); and 
sent, hastening to the Httle dock, a party 
of solemnly eager children and their father, 

"We have been watching all day for ca- 
noes. I am a member of the association, 
though not much of a canoist myself. We 
spend our summers here in the pines, and I 
have joined for the pleasure of raising the 
flag and decoying canoists ashore. To- 
night, sir, you could not find a better camp 
than beside us in the grove." 

We were too tired for camping, we de- 
cided. But if there were a farm - house 
near — 

"There is one just beyond. We will 
show you the way." 

The children ran on before us, and out 
into fields rising with soft slopes back to 
the mountain wall. 

" The finest iron-mines in the country are 
only nine miles over the mountains," Mr 
Thorp said. " If you are interested in such 
things, why not stay and visit them ?" 

Why not, indeed ? The trip had been 
planned by the time we reached the farm- 
house. 







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1 




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X 


n 


>*5 


lir 


1 


tl 


a 


*-^ 


1 












70 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

This had the mark of aristocracy in the 
region — a square cupola, as of a New Eng- 
land meeting-house. Its one roof, extend- 
ing over many out-buildings, gave the sum- 
mer traveller a shivering reminder of the 
relentless winter, never far distant ; and the 
sweet -faced people who received us spoke 
and moved as though accustomed to the 
perpetual silence and solitude of snow. The 
heirlooms of ancestors who had wrestled 
for these fields, the clock and the creaking 
cupboard brought from Scotland, made 
more noise than they did. 

After supper the Captain stirred things up 
by what should have been a flash-light pict- 
ure, but was only an explosion. And then 
the grandmother laid her spectacles in the 
family Bible and told us this tale. It has 
so pointed a moral that we recommend it 
for a collection of Tales of the Young. 

"My two uncles," said the little grand- 
mother, *' were the first men that ever built 
steamboats on the lake. They built two. 
They put all they had into 'em. The one's 
name was the Phoenix. She burned clear 
down to the water's edge. The other was 
the Enterprise. She sank." 



72 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

Yet we slept well upon it. The little boy 
even admitted : " It is nicer to sleep in a 
farm-house, though it is more fun in a tent." 
And the Captain dreamed of a canoe all of 
aluminum ; so light that, only start her, and 
she would go forever ! 

Next morning, Mrs, Alexander, from her 
kitchen door, directed us across lots. 

" You see that dash of sand — past that 
jag — around that clearing ? That's the gap." 

And we hastened over the fields. For 
this is a thing we delight in — to fling the 
reins to Fate, and let her gallop with us 
whither she will. 

Leaving the clay of a former lake-bottom, 
we struck into the sand of a former lake- 
shore, and climbed steadily up among pines, 
beeches, poplars, and whitest of white 
birches. Often we turned to note the sink- 
ing of plain and lake ; so that we were pres- 
ently overtaken by a cart. The driver, a 
red-faced young fellow, whose trousers were 
a variegated landscape of clever patches, 
looked expressionless as a tree until his 
slow eyes found the little boy. Then they 
lighted, and he said, " Wouldn't the little 
chap like to ride ?" 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 73 

In the halt at every " thank you, ma'am," 
we learned about the few dwellings we 
passed, and about the mountains' other in- 
habitants. Foxes were many, and deer. 
Only the other day a doe had come into the 
garden to look for her fawn. And bears — 
small black ones. Every autumn they came 
to this deserted orchard for apples. 

We drew up before a cabin. It was very 
gray and low. But the peaks overtopping 
it, and the sunflowers and hollyhocks prank- 
ing its walls, and the marigolds, phlox, four- 
o'clocks around it, made us think the good 
God liked to pour his own luxuries upon 
his mountaineers. A little white-haired 
child ran out, crying " Dad !" 

The man lifted it, looked over its curls at 
us with a smile dawning from some depth, 
and said, " Won't ye come in to dinner.^" 

Wouldn't we ? Not every day could we 
enter a' kitchen-parlor like this one, with 
white bare floor, and window-shades with 
pictures, and masterpieces of mysterious 
dried bouquets upon the mantel. Not every 
day could we be served by such a dainty 
wild flower of a woman, nor see the Captain 
drink from a cup marked "A Good Child," 



74 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

nor find the little boy speechless a meal 
through, his eyes upon a plate with Noah's 
Ark in the middle, and all the, animals out 
in a procession on the rim. 

They hung upon our words. They had 
read about canoes and the Meet, but never 
had seen a live canoist. They detained us 
with pretexts. The little wife would show 
us the house, halting in the guest-room that 
we might mark the brand-new set of furni- 
ture ; and on the bureau — light of civiliza- 
tion ! — a red plush manicure-case. " It takes 
some time to get things, when you hadn't 
much to start with," she said, with, we were 
glad to think, more of pride than apolog}^ 
And she ran merrily down with us to the 
brook, where "John's mother used to wash, 
and make fire under the big kettle. But 
now John had made an aqueduct to the 
house, and the washing isn't anything to 
what it used to be." 

In parting they asked, " Wouldn't we 
please stop in on our way back.^" 

The afternoon walk was chiefly the de- 
scent into Mineville. 

Place of huge chimneys, of smoke, of 
crazy plank walks, of miners' dwellings, of 




At Mineville 



76 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

saloons, of rushing machines, of a black, evil 
pit in the centre, and white doves flutter- 
ing up from it like souls out of purgatory. 

Crouched in the buckets, we dropped 500 
feet sheer down, and stepped out into an icy 
chillness,among listless, blackened men. Cy- 
clopean pillars rose above us in three tiers of 
arches to the far sky ; and beyond us sun k an- 
other pit, and down in it moved lights, which 
meant, each, a man. Their shouts came hol- 
low. There there were crashes, long rolls of 
awful reverberations, and the stifling breath 
of dynamite. It was joyful to rise again into 
the sunlight ; to be able to laugh at the lit- 
tle boy on a high stool proudly scrawling 
his name in the visitors' book, and to give 
thanks for the blessings of common day. 

" Oh no ! There was no place to eat or 
sleep in Mineville," the grocery man said ; 
" but here was a wagon going five miles 
up, and the driver Mr. McGill, the school- 
master." 

So, while crimson flakes filled the top of 
the pass, and a whippoorwill sang, we listened 
to the story of Barney McGill ; how, a little 
orphan boy, he had worked in the mines, and 
studied betweentimes and nights, and saved 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 79 

encugh to go away to school ; how he had 
come back to take the big Minevihe school, 
and quell and inspire its roughest spirits ; 
how, since, he had sent each sister away to 
study and become a teacher. He told it as 
modestly and bravely as he had lived it, and 
then disappeared from our sight in a group 
of laughing, pretty young women. 

There was still a mile. The little boy en- 
livened it by a discovery. " Ha I I see how 
the stars come out : I was looking at a 
spot, and a star popped out just like pop- 
corn !" But we found it best not to stare 
too long at any tree or bush, lest it should 
take on form and motion " very like a bear.'' 
And the small cabin, when we reached it, 
rayed out upon the dark mountain-road a 
cheery, welcome light. 

We could see the mountaineer, in a fresh 
shirt, reading aloud from his paper while his 
wife sewed. A basin of the marigolds was on 
the table. The shed door stood open. As we 
walked in, both rose to meet us. He was un- 
mistakably smiling now, and over his shoul- 
der her voice came with an exultant ring : 

" I told John you'd be back I Supper's 
all ready." 



8o A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 



VI 



Back again from the hills, we were all 
seated around a fire on Mr. Thorp's point 
— children laughing, sparks flying, stories 
going round — when the moon rose up, a 
full ellipse, and said, " Willsborough Point 
to-morrow !" 

If the moon meant it, the lake did not. 
Next day there was a riot of sun, wind, and 
wave. Along the rocky bastions of the 
shore the waters shouted in derision at 
sight of Gernegross as she labored around 
to meet each crest, and hurried down each 
trough. But when the Vermont landed her 
Adirondack pilgrims at Westport that after- 
noon, Geriicgross lay waiting on the dock, 
and was borne aboard. 

Had Champlain broken its barriers ? we 
wondered, when we steamed out from the 
beautiful town and bay ; for, widening be- 
tween the shadow-line of the Green Mount- 




On Deck of the ' ' Fennoui 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 83 

ains and the tumultuous peaks of the Adi- 
rondacks, it stretched northward like an 
ocean — dark, vast, 

" Isn't it lovely !" "Lovely!" "Lovely'" 
came like a refrain from a group of young 
girls. 

"Out in our State," a neat, nervous West- 
erner remarked impartially to the seated 
people around him, " there's no such rough 
country as all this. The land is every bit 
so,'' pointing to a level grass field. 

"You haven't such lakes, either," retorted 
a smart young lawyer from Plattsburg. 

"Oh, we've lakes too," answered the West- 
erner, " But it's a fine body of water enough, 
is old Champlain." 

Indeed, his braggadocio was plainly failing 
him, " I was a Burlington boy," we heard 
him tell a lady. " Never been back before," 
While that city grew at the east he stood 
up with folded arms. Presently he cried, 
" There's Dunder Rock !" and " There's Ju- 
piter Island I" Then he asked, with a quaver 
in his voice, " If you'll just let me have that 
glass a minute ? The University of Vermont 
ought to be right there. It stood on Main 
Street, with all the big buildings. Prettiest 



84 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

Street anywhere. Pretty as a Denver street. 
Strange, I can't find it I" He sat down and 
gripped the chair-arms. But, as roofs and 
spires came swinging in to us, suddenly he 
lurched forward, seized our little boy, lifted 
him high, and shouted, " Ho, my lad, that's 
Burlington ! Ain't you tickled to see it.?" 

The child struggled away. There was a 
general shoving back of chairs. But the 
Westerner was down-stairs first, and, first, 
strode over the gang-plank. 

We followed Gernegross along the wharf 
and into the little steamer Chateaitgay. 
There was no need now to ask, Whither 
bound ? Canoes filled the passageways, and 
young men in knickerbockers and blazers 
swarmed everywhere. One of these stopped 
to give Gernear-ross a long, nautical stare, 
then inquired pleasantly, " Ever been to the 
Meet before.?" 

He and his wife were down from Canada. 
They had reached camp yesterday, and to- 
day had run up to Burlington for supplies. 

" Last year we ate at the mess tent ; this 
year we are going to really camp out." 

"Is there a great crowd.?" we queried. 
"Many ladies.? What kind of people.?" 




is. 



86 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

For the first time we faltered before that 
novel thing, now but a half -hour off — a 
Canoe Meet. 

" All nice people — the whole three hun- 
dred," he said, smiling. " It is a fact ; and it 
is odd, when the only condition of member- 
ship is the dollar fee. They are largely pro- 
fessional men, with a sprinkling of business 
men, and some mechanics. But they have 
one common bond — a genuine love of nat- 
ure. Probably that accounts for the singu- 
lar courtesy and congeniality — that, and the 
fact that so many bring their sisters and 
wives with them. I'll go and find my wife." 

The lady he brought wore a bright, sashed 
boating costume, the cap well back on her 
fair hair for love of sunshine. To imagine 
her wearing anything less picturesque was 
impossible, with that free step, as though 
the winds upbuoyed her, and that large un- 
consciousness, as of nature itself. Blessed 
be a happy first impression ! When Mrs, 

H held out her hand, and said, with a 

rich voice, and a smile that made the littlj 
phrase a new one, " Glad to meet you," the 
Canoe Meet took on, for us, romance it 
never lost. 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 87 

" And were you never at a Meet before ?" 
she said. "Oh, but I'm sure you will like 
it ! It is the freest place in the world. You 
can either be sociable and know everybody, 
or you can go off and be alone, just as you 
will. Isn't that so, Mr. H ?" 

" Yes. They come for all sorts of reasons. 
The women, mostly, to look pretty " — he 
smiled at his wife ; " the men, mostly, to 
have a good time." 

" That is what yoii say. But you know 
very well that we Canadian girls come to 
paddle, the same as yourselves." 

And did she paddle alone, then ? 

" Oh yes, I was brought up on the river. 
Father taught us all to handle a boat the 
first thing. You see, with us a canoe is 
something different from what it is with 
you States people. It is a means of com- 
munication. Men go to business so, and to 
the farms, and up into the wilderness to 
hunt. Come, here we are." 

But what magical new world was this.'* 
what fairy fleet, flying about us in the wind 
with long swallow-curves, or along the shore 
with stroke of paddle darting in and out — 
brilliant -hued, amber, crimson, pale and 



»» A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

dark green and blue — or drawn up on the 
bowlder-strewn beach ? what tents, far on 
along the wooded bluff, each gleaming at the 
head of its banner-hung cove ? what pict- 
uresque inhabitants, welcoming the steamer? 
now with call of nut-brown maid in her 
canoe to some athlete striding along the 
dock with boat on shoulder, now with a 
cheer for a club marching ashore with its 
great war-canoe. Ah, we understand ; here 
are the happy hunting-grounds ! These are 
the glorified braves ! 

" Does not the hotel interfere with all 

this ?" we asked Mrs. H , as she led us 

past the bulky, conventional structure on 
the shore, to the grassy plain that covers 
Willsborough Point, except for the rim of 
woods. 

" No ; though it is full, too, with friends 
of the canoists. But they are allowed in 
camp only by special permit. This is the 
mess pavilion. Those " — pointing to a col- 
lection of large tents and a row of flag-staffs 
on a little knoll before us — "are Head- 
quarters. They fly the States' flag, the Eng- 
lish jack, the A. C. A., and some strings of 
camp signals. And here is Squaw Point." 



go A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

She parted the bushes, went along the be- 
ginnings of a foot-path to the edge of the 
bluff, and cried, " Welcome home !" 

The tent, striped red, white, and blue, had 
two chambers, tiny windows, and a board 
floor continuing in a porch, whereon stood 
a table and camp-chairs. She stepped with- 
in to give a womanly touch or two, and say, 
" It will look better with the rugs we got in 
Burlington." 

"Squaw Point .^" we said, with our eyes 
upon the early lights of the city across the 
lake, and the flushing cloud -Alps above. 
"Then where is the bachelors' camp?" 

" On the west, along Indian Bay. Except 
the Toronto camp ; that is at the north. 
These beside us are Ottawa people." She 
pointed to the next tent, whence some fair- 
haired girls nodded back to her. 

As she spoke, two canoes arrived with the 
rest of our party and cargo. Our tent was 
soon up. When the last rope was tied, Mr. 

H appeared and said, " Now you will 

come over and take tea with us." 

While the dusk fell we talked of Canada, 
to us a dim, romantic land. They thought 
Canadians merrier than States people, and 



^ 



^J 




92 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

more athletic. Mr. H himself had gone 

nine hundred miles on Canadian rivers with- 
out once meeting a white man. The women 
were healthier, they thought. They had no- 
ticed it at the Meets. They paddled their 
own boats, and in winter made long tramps 
on snow-shoes. 

Presently there was a sound of crackling 
of wood and snapping sparks. Then a man- 
dolin twanged, 'and a rich voice led in a jolly, 
rhythmic song, with many voices catching 
up the swinging refrain, 

" I haven't heard so much laughter," said 
one of our little party, musing in that im- 
personal, abstract manner in which we lay 
life as it is and as it has been beside the 
spirit's promise of what it shall be — "I 
haven't heard so much laughter since 
I was a child and we were always laugh- 
ing. They seem largely grown - up peo- 
ple. But they are not trying to be amusing 
or amused. They laugh like children. 
They have slipped back into childhood. 
Listen ! " 

'' Look !" cried some one else. 

A light kindled in the west. It was in 
silver along the mountain -tops. It sent 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 93 

long, zigzag gleams across the lake to us. 
Then, lifting serene over the rim of the 
world, came the great, golden ball of the 
August full-moon. 



94 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 



VII 

" While we poor sailors go skipping through the tops, 
And the landlubbers lie down below, below, below." 

The merry voice drew on, passed with the 
stroke of paddles — ah, now we remembered ! 
It was midmost of gondola days. 

Hitherto the great lake had tantalized 
good sailors with light breezes. But this 
morning, when we looped back our tent 
after the night-long roar of trees and shout 
of waves, the broad blue was flecked with 
breakers. 

" This would make glorious sailing for the 
trophy. Look !" as the cannon boomed, 
and across the sun's path came the usual 
morning procession to breakfast. " See the 
Cricket pass the Mopsie. The girl in the 
Tempest leads the line, as usual. But isn't 
it about time the boy was back from the 
grocery tent with the milk ?" 

" It's all those wicked cows," explained 




t^c"^^^^ 



" Victory or a duckittg ' 



96 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

that person, appearing, heated, through the 
trees. " I was almost here, when I saw them 
going straight for the Headquarter's tent. 
So I put the pail down, and went to chase 
them. But they'd have been inside, sure, if 
the Headquarter himself hadn't run out and 
driven them away." 

We sat to breakfast. A chipmunk above 
us excitedly fed himself cedar buds with his 
paws. Then the young captain of the Dot 
sauntered through the woods whistling the 
" Lorelei," and sat down on the moss to 
discuss his failure in yesterday's race. 

" It was such a beastly wind ; all cat's- 
paws. What my rig wants is a good socia- 
ble big capful. Then my sail got jammed, 
and I couldn't run it up as fast as the other 
fellow. Did you see the pennant my sisters 
worked for it .-' A regular beauty ! But I 
don't much care. My mother said, before 
I came, she had prize-cups enough already 
to keep bright. Here's a picture of the last 

one, the cup, and the boat I took it 

with." The boy passed on, whistling, frank 
and gay and innocent. 

"It is a pretty sight — that whole family of 
voung Dot interesting themselves so in his 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 97 

canoing," we said, while, down on the beach, 
we exchanged morning greetings with the 
H.'s, and prepared to shove out in Geriie- 
gross. 

" Yes. Probably they are glad to find one 
sport free from temptations to gambling, or 
objectionable company, or even the squan- 
dering of money. The father is a prominent 
New York business man, I happen to know. 
Though here we often meet a man for years 
without learning so much about him as his 
calling. The camp sentiment is, that cano- 
ing is common interest enough, and being 
here is sufificient passport." 

We wondered where else, in our self-con- 
scious societ^^ a sentiment so unworldly 
could prevail. 

" There's my Crusoe Cave !" exclaimed 
the little boy, pointing out a gap in the 
noble confusion of piled rocks we were pass- 
ing, where the winter's gale showed still in 
the twisted and overhanging cedars. " It 
has the Magazine and all, perfect I I sit in- 
side, and read Robinson Crusoe ; and I'm 
going to read it there every day." 

Boats! boats! boats! As we rounded the 
Point, now a launch puffed by, now a yacht 



9» A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

came tacking out ; but chiefly and every- 
where canoes were moving upon the water, 
or lay along the beach of Indian Bay. 
While for whilom dusky wigwams, a gala 
village arranged by clubs fringed the woods. 
" Brooklyn," " Lowell," " Holyoke," the flags 
read, and over one group of small pyra- 
midal brown tents was " Brown Univer- 
sity." 

Scraps of nautical conversation about 
" builds " and " rigs " floated in upon us. 
Beside one upturned boat knelt its owner, 
surrounded by a group in dreadfully earnest 
consultation. On the next float a dignified 
old gentleman stood trumpeting through his 
hands, hot and excited as though at a po- 
litical convention. And the beau-ideal of a 
dashing young sailor, in suit of white with 
yellow kerchief knotted at the waist and 
bared curls, flew shoreward to catch, from 
the trumpet, "The leech draws a little, 
Jack !" 

" Watch the four in that birch-bark spring 
to the leader's directions," said our Captain. 
" I must ask what race is on next." 

We stopped beside the familiar figure of 
an artist, floating leisurely in a long canoe 





iffiiiiiiiaii^ 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP lOI 

that gleamed a dull yellow. Hiawatha was 
on the bow, and the legend, 

" And she floated on the water 
Like a yellow leaf in autumn, 
Like a yellow water-lily." 

Some subtle likeness of expression be- 
tween boat and man — was it a look of know- 
ing how to penetrate to the inner joys of 
things? — prompted us to say, "Your boat 
always looks as though she v/ere having 
good times, too." 

He dropped his eyes, and responded, quiet- 
ly, "She is my best friend." 

He had expressed it for us all. There was 
no need to formulate it further, as this thin, 
ardent-faced girl, isolated in youth's haugh- 
ty idealism, passed alone in her dark -red 
Tempest; or as Mr. Micawber drew beside 
us to read Gernegross s name and exchange 
notes on German travel, looking through 
his glasses for some humorous bit of life or 
adventure to " turn up." 

"And yet they call us a wholly utilita- 
rian people !" we began at dinner. But the 
rest was forgotten ; for that moment Mr. 
H.'s head appeared around the tent, and 



102 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

his voice said, " The Trophy race at two 
o'clock !" 

When we paddled out the Point was 
black with people, huddling on bowlders, 
hemming the bluff, and scurrying about 
with glasses and cameras for " good points." 
And sixteen etherealized little boats— all 
wings and no body — moved out of Indian 
Bay manoeuvring in a labyrinthine maze, 
and accompanied to the first buoy by a 
whole flotilla of spectators. 

" Come on, ye little cockle-shells !" laugh- 
ed the great tumbling lake, and the red and 
white buoys rose on the crests to beckon. 
The regatta committee steamed out, the 
stake - boat took its position, the cannon 
thundered. 

"Goit, W !" "J 's ahead!" "No, 

its L 1" Calls, cheers, groans followed 

the fleet until the leading boats had drawn 
away from the rest. Then the spectators 
settled to the long watching. 

"Where's B ?" asked a voice from 

the group with which we were interlocked, 
naming the son of a well-known general. 

" His boat was broken just before the 
start." 



I04 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

There was a murmur of disappointment ; 
and the first speaker said : " I would like to 
see him win the trophy. He has done so 
much for canoing. And he is such a kind 
and unassuming fellow." 

" Ha ! Tom's over !" as one sail lay flat, 
righted, and came slowly ashore to receive 
a mock welcome. 

" J ," said the yachting editor, with his 

glass on the expected winner, '• is the great- 
est man I know for cutting clean around a 
buoy." 

There was a breathless instant ; for now 
that sailor came spinning in, lying far out to 
windward on his sliding seat, his feet strain- 
ed against the coaming. His boat cut, 
rather than rode, the waves that, leaping, 
hid and drenched her, reeled around the 
buoy, gybed, and was off. 

Conversation recommenced. 

" Mr. S wants the ladies all to smile 

He has pointed his camera this way." 

"Did you hear the joke on R ? You 

know he detests Visitors' Day ; thinks the 
Association shouldn't have any. So the 
boys hung a sign before his tent — ' Visitors 
welcome ! Picnic here !' And when he 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP I07 

came back, half a hundred people were un- 
der his awning !" 

"Why doesn't he lufif ? He's making a 
fool of himself ! There ! He's let that fel- 
low steal by to windward !" 

Said an elderly German, " I am shust 
about to poobleesh my book on ze dees- 
coovery of America by ze Irish." 

" The Irish ? Good gracious !" exclaimed 
his nautical young friend. " And what was 
the man's name ?" 

" I haf not yet ^^/^cided." 

A naughty convulsion of laughter threat- 
ened a capsize. 

" I mean," explained the German gentle- 
man, mildly, " dere are two names given. 
And I haf not yet <^6'cided which is ze most 
mythical." 

Suddenly, from the depths of Indian Bay, 
a strange object advances, and calmly pro- 
ceeds to round Willsborough Point — a mon- 
ster, one hundred and fifty feet long, with 
gaping red jaws, pointed tail and crest — the 
fabled Champlain sea-serpent ! As the idea 
dawns upon the astonished people they 
break into wild applause — all except a poor 
little dog in one of the canoes, who yelps 



I08 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

with terror. The serpent gnashes its jaws. 
Its scales glisten. It passes, surrounded by 
admiring, harpoon-flinging crews. Mighty- 
laughter springs up before it, and dies slow- 
ly in its wake. 

But the sun is sinking. And all eyes hang 
on this one man, fleeting in to his last buoy, 
beyond the power of the launch to accom- 
pany him. He passes ! And from sea 
and shore comes one burst of gratulation. 

" Three cheers for J , the winner of 

the trophy !" they greet him. He lifts his 
cap. And another boat arriving, he 
starts up, " Three cheers for the second 
man !" 

For delight of the little boy we paddle 
out to the reef where lies the sea-serpent. 
The mountains are lavender, and against 
them glows Burlington. The city is hardly 
seen by day. Then, at sunset, first a single 
window flashes golden, like a humble great 
soul found of its opportunity; and the rest 
follow, and the leafage is vivid and the brick 
warm. Quickly it fades to grayness ; and 
presently, and all night long, it is a serene 
and solemn place of stars. 

That same evening the signals on the 




Reading '■^Robinson Crzisoe ' 



no A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

tall flag-stafif read, " At eight o'clock there 
will be a general camp-fire in the ladies' 
camp." 

The moonlight, when it begins to glisten 
on the meadow and to trickle into the woods, 
reveals figures gathering with lanterns and 
camp-chairs, mandolins and guitars. Below 
the moon is the evening-star ; and, below 
that, the fire on the beach. The big logs 
glow, and send slow sparks curling up like 
serpents. Fireworks answer from Pumpkin 
Reef. Cheers greet the win ner of the trophy ; 
also the creator of the sea-serpent. " He 
does get up the cleverest things ! There 
were the tableaux Monday night." " And 
the water tournament." " And the proces- 
sion of lanterns." The voices are merged 
in the chorus, " While we were marching 
through Georgia." 

Which ended, a rollicking voice reels off 
a Canadian dialect song : 

A BALLAD OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 

" 'Twas one dark night on Lac Champlain, 
An' de win' she's blow, blow, blow ; 
When de crew of de wood-scow Jule La Plante 
Get scare an' run below. 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

For de win' she's blow like a hurricane; 

Bime-by she's blow some more ; 
An' de scow buss up on Lac Champlain, 

Juss half-mile from de shore. 

" De cap'n she's walk de front deck ; 

She's walk de hind deck too ; 
She's call de crew from up de hoi' ; 

She's call de cook also. 
Dat cook his name was Rosa, 

He's come from Montreal, 
Was chamber-maid on a lumber barge 

On de big Lachine Canal. 

" De win' she's blow from nor' eas' wes'. 

An' de sous win' she's blow too ; 
When Rosa say, " Oh, capitan, 

Vatever s'all we do?" 
De cap'n den she's trow de hank, 

But still dat scow she drif ; 
An' de crew he can't pass on dat shore, 

Because he's lose de skiff. 

"De night vas dark like von black cat, 

An' de waves roll high an' fast ; 
Ven de cap'n take poor Rosa, 

An' she lash him to de mast. 
Den de cap'n put on de life-preserve, 

An' she jump into de lac. 
An' say, " Good-bye, my Rosa dear; 

I go drown for your sake." 

" Nex' momin' very hearly, 

'Bout half-past two, three, four, 
De cap'n, cook, and wood-scow 
Lay corpses on dat shore. 



112 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

For de win' she's blow like a hurricane ; 

Bime-by she's blow some more; 
An' de scow buss up on Lac-Champiain; 

'Bout half-mile from de shore. 

" Now all you wood-scow sailor-mans 

Take warning by dat st6rm, 
An' go an' marry von nice French girl. 

An' live on von nice farm. 
Den de win' may blow like a hurricane, 

An' s'pose she's blow some more, 
You von't get drown on Lac Champlain, 

So long you stay on shore." 

Stories follow. College songs fill in the 
pauses. Armfuls of hemlock boughs, heaped 
upon the fire, crackle in accompaniment. 

Now there is a call for , and a rich voice 

sings to the mandolin a bit of melodious 
sentimentalism that, combined with the 
light of moon and stars and the gloom of sea 
and shore, distracts all susceptible youths 
and maidens, and discovers softness in the 
sturdiest of bachelors and in the most pro- 
saic of married people : 

" I want no kingdom where thou art. Love; 
I want no throne to make me blest. 

*' I need not fear, whate'er betide me, 

For straight and sweet my pathway lies ; 
I want no stars in heaven to guide me 
While I gaze in your dear eyes." 



■^ 




A FAMILY CANOE TRIP II 5 

Then, gathering up all chords, the voice 
leads into "America" and "God save the 
Queen," and so to good-night, 

Gondola days cannot last forever. 

A few evenings later there was a gather- 
ing at Headquarters, when the prizes were 
awarded — the Pecowsic and Commodore's 
cups, the beautiful trophy, the flags and pen- 
nants — and when the outgoing Commodore 
made his farewell speech, and the incom- 
ing one was welcomed with the call of the 
A. C. A. 

Afterwards we crossed the meadows to 
look for the last time into Indian Bay. Still 
there came up the tinkle of guitars, sing- 
ing, laughter, dip of paddles. But the tents 
were few. Many boats lay dismantled. Now 
lines of light stole between the shadows of 
the shores. 

We turned. The August moon was on 
the wane. 



Il6 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 



VIII 



We rarely expect the charm of a journey 
to extend to the return. And if the old 
route must be retravelled, we feel impatient 
of it as of some worn-out thing that persists 
in existing. But as we go our way, we dis- 
cover that this return may be richest in 
the very quality which we denied to it — 
in novelty. For places seen before have a 
way of turning upon us wholly new looks. 

We left Willsborough Point with fare- 
wells called from the scattered tents along 
the shore. The familiar lake was heartlessly 
unaware of us — was soon positively unkind 
with wind and rain ; so that we put in at 
Essex. 

Once a bustling port, now the town was 
picturesquely dull, and Gernegross made a 
great stir there. People ran to factory win- 
dows and down streets, and stood compact- 
ed around the dock. And when our Cap- 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP Iig 

tain called up, " Where is the best place 
to land ?" a regiment of boys and men ran 
to give a practical reply. 

We waited for the steamboat in company 
with a party of farmer folk, the women 
very natural and lovable in old-fashioned 
gowns and bonnetfuls of preposterous but- 
tercups and poppies. " Come again.?" one 
of them answered a friend who was seeing 
her off. " Well, I never before found the 
time when I could get away, and I don't ex- 
pect to again in a hurry." When the steam- 
boat landed them across the lake, we saw 
them, swallowed up in bulging top-wagons, 
and their sweet thin faces duly set tow^ards 
their devouring farms. Then we recrossed 
to Westport, and in the dark found a hotel. 

It was filled with the race of summer 
boarders. We had glimpses of them on 
stiff chairs and sofas around the parlor 
walls. A lady at the piano was asking, 
"What are the wild waves saying.?" and a 
gentleman was giving an energetic, but, as 
we thought, incorrect answer with the cor- 
net. In the intervals of the entertainment 
a baby cried in the wing. Presently a blond 
young woman, with a book under her arm, 



I20 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

passed our window, in company with a 
young man in a red blazer. " Das est ein — 
no, eine — Fraulein, isn't it ?" said she. Then, 
as they reached the end of the path, " Wie 
heissen sie ein gate ?" It looked a compre- 
hensive way of studying German, and ful- 
of possibilities for the young man in the red 
blazer, as the eager blond young woman 
should advance in her vocabulary. 

The next morning we put ofif into the 
shining bay, watched by the senile old gafifer. 
" Well, well ! Seen the lake all my life, but 
I've never seen sich a thing as this ! So that 
is a canoe ? Thought they were like the 
dugouts we used to have in my young days. 
Now I can say I've seen one. Ha, ha ! 
hum !" 

Down at Mr. Thorp's point we were wel- 
comed like old friends. And the lake being 
now tempestuous, we camped in the grove 
for several days, while the little boy sailed 
cucumber boats with the Thorp children. 
Surely it is vain to ransack the earth for 
costly amusements for children. Our little 
boy counts as the chief delight of the trip 
the sailing of these cucumber boats and the 
towinof of his mother on the canal. 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 123 

When we did start out, the bay by Port 
Henry rose into a furious sea, and drove us 
upon the beach at Crown Point. We lunch- 
ed at the ruined fort, with a picnic party not 
interesting to us until we met them again 
at the light-house. They were preparing to 
return to Ticonderoga in a tub of a launch 
which took on, for us, positive beauty. 

" Could you give us a tow ?" asked our 
Captain. 

" Goes too fast," 

" Could you — take us on board ?" 

They thought they could. Quickly the 
bargain was made and we were seated at the 
bow, and steaming between banks we had 
once thought far apart, but which now, after 
the broad upper lake, seemed very near. 
The party behind us waxed merry over their 
baskets and paper bags. They sang " Over 
the Summer Sea" and ''Beloved Eye, be- 
loved Star," and others of the maudlin 
songs that constitute the music of many 
of our people. Meanwhile the sun gilded 
the little clouds about him, and set them 
sailing in pale green lakes, and made the 
trees along the hill-tops look like lace-work 
against the gold. Then night settled upon 



124 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

the shores, and in darkness we landed at 
Fort Ticonderoga. 

We stumbled up to the Heights of Caril- 
lon. There was no genial Professor now; 
only his tent-poles, which we proceeded to 
use. The winds were true to us. Fasci- 
nated, we heard them gather to their all- 
absorbing shout. But we had no second 
adventure. 

The next day was our last on Lake Cham- 
plain. Hour after hour we went along the 
winding creek which constitutes the upper 
lake, following the red -and- black beacons 
that show the way among the rushes. 
Flocks of red-winged starlings made their 
evolutions over our heads, with pretty 
showings of their bright epaulets. 

At Whitehall we met the canal. That 
was on a wash-day. The canal-boat women 
were on deck to receive us, and the clothes 
on the lines flapped like flags. Some of our 
old friends recognized us, and were curious 
as to where we had been, and received smil- 
ingly our Captain's fine answer, " Oh, every- 
where !" 

It had been mowing-time as we came up. 
Now the threshing-machines were at work, 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 1 27 

and the loads of grain and the yellow stacks 
of sheaves looked like the pictures labelled 
" Harvesting." The wild flowers, too, were 
changed. The varying tints of the asters 
were shot through with damask spires of 
sumac berries. And when we towed, clouds 
of yellow butterflies rose at our feet. 

At last we reached Albany. At sight of 
its houses, all the commonplace wants of 
civilized man suddenly awoke in us — for a 
house and a bed and tables and chairs and 
things. We met some of our camp ac- 
quaintances — young business men of the 
Mohican Club, who told us of their beau- 
tiful club-house a little below on the river, 
whither they paddle of evenings in their 
war canoe, and invited us to take possession 
of it for the night. But now we were upon 
a stampede. We even fled dastardly from 
Geriiegross, leaving her on board the river 
steamboat ; and took to the cars. 

And, rushing southward through the even- 
ing, we laughed to think how we would 
steal a march upon our friends ; creep home 
through the darkness by back ways, and ap- 
pear in the morning neat, conventionalized, 
innocent of ever having camped out. 



128 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

But as we alighted at the station, it was 
thronged with people. Music and jubila- 
tion filled the ain Bonfires burned on every 
corner, and every one we knew and did not 
know was out upon the pavement. 

So every journey is rich in the unexpect- 
ed, and the greatest surprise of all may 
await us at the end. What if this be also 
true of that other journey upon which we 
are all trudging together ? What and if, 
for even the shabbiest traveller — the one 
who, foot-sore, asks only rest at the end — 
there shall be, and this time not unaware of 
him, the royalest of welcomes ? 



ADDENDA 

Camping Is not for every one. It is not 
for the dear finnicky souls whom the very 
thought of disorder upsets, whose living 
must always be as decorous and as planned 
as the garden of Mistress Mary, 

" With cockle-shells and silver bells, 
And cowslips all arow," 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 13I 

It is not for the women to whom a tangle 
of deep grass means a possible snake. It is 
not for the men whose appetite fails them 
at a table less than three feet above grass- 
hoppers and crickets. It is not for people 
of few resources, miserable when alone. 

It is for all who are in love with Nature, 
who desire to know her in every mood — in 
storm, in the wilderness, in the night, and, 
with Keats, 

" Far, far away to leave 
All meaner thoughts, and take a sweet reprieve 
From little cares;" 

who, away from the shows of things, find 
clearer judgments sifting dovv^n between the 
leaves with the sunlight and springing up 
with the grass-blades ; and who are willing 
to pay for all this the price of some sacrifice 
of ease and order and conventionality. 

To those about to attempt it for the first 
time, especially if they intend combining 
it with economy, a few simple hints from 
our own experience of camping may be 
helpful. 

Our tent is the least troublesome and the 
most serviceable we have seen. It is made 



132 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

of unbleached muslin, without seams; the 
bottom sewed in, and bordered by an oiled 
cotton rope made into loops for its six pegs. 
In its bag with all its ropes it makes a pack- 
age two feet by ten inches, and weighs nine 
pounds. To pitch it we peg the floor in 
position, throw the ridge-rope over two con- 
venient tree limbs, straighten out the rear 
wall by its three guys, stretch ventilators, 
pull up the sag of the roof by a cord attach- 
ed to a loop in the centre — and are ready 
for fair weather or foul. The perpendicular 
front closes it by night, and is stretched out 
as an awning by day. A loose flounce, six 
inches wide, sewed around the tent four 
inches from the bottom, is very important 
for preventing the soaking in of water under 
the floor. The whole is water-proofed by 
the alum sugar -of -lead process, and has 
never leaked. 

Clothing should be all of flannel, with an 
extra jacket, and not a superfluous article. 

For our party of three we carried an extra 
heavy copper-bottomed three -quart pail 
with cover, and a removable chain handle ; 
a second pail of the same kind fitting into 
the first ; and within this five deep tin 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 



133 



basins, three tin cups, three small steel 
knives and forks, and ten dessert-spoons. 
Unbleached muslin cases m.ade with draw- 
ing strings covered both pails. The axe, 
broiler, and frying-pan, all very small, had a 
muslin bag to themselves. In addition we 
had a tiny alcohol lamp costing thirty cents, 




Diagram of Tent 



and a can of wood alcohol for use inside the 
tent, or when in haste ; also a chain for 
hanging pails over a wood -fire. Safety- 
matches were a great convenience in rain or 
wind. 

It is hardly necessary to say that camp 
cookery will usually be of the simplest. 
The compensation lies in the vigorous ap- 
petite of the camper. Canned goods are 



134 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

always procurable. Farm-houses may be 
depended upon for bread and butter, milk 
and eggs, fruit and vegetables. Oatmeal 
and coffee serve as the basis of breakfast. 
At noon a cold lunch is easiest. It is best 
to camp by four o'clock in the afternoon 
at the latest, and have plenty of time for 
preparing dinner. 

It is often restful to spend a night or rainy 
day at a farm-house. The people in quiet 
regions are hospitable, and glad to meet 
strangers. There should be no spirit of 
haste in the journey. The best plan is to go 
but a few miles a day, and to make frequent 
and often long halts. If one must hurry, let 
it be by railroads and steamboats. 

A suitable canoe is of the highest impor- 
tance. It should be light and swift, yet ca- 
pable of carrying a good load and of endur- 
ing rough usage. Such a craft our Cana- 
dian friends have fashioned after the Indian 
"birch-bark,"' the famous Peterborough, so 
called from the town of its builder, William 
English. This canoe seems to be the model, 
both in form and construction, for all the 
North country. With its high curving ends, 
it is a beautiful boat, often fancifully painted 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP I35 

with gay Indian designs. And especially 
v/hen a lady paddles with the single blade, 
kneeling Indian fashion, supported by the 
round hollow thwart, the grace and move- 
ment render the whole the prettiest picture 
that floats. 

No woman ought to venture far from 
shore in such a boat, or to use a sail — ex- 
cept, perhaps, a small square sail at the 
bow, to take advantage of a favoring breeze. 
The true canoist is a frequenter of forest 
waterways, and loves best to float w4th the 
stream. 

For convenience in loading and unloading, 
it is well to have the luggage arranged in 
eight or ten separate packages, all easy to 
pick up and handle, A bag is serviceable 
for extra clothing, a very light box for pro- 
visions ; another smaller box, containing 
everything likely to be needed while in the 
camp, should be carried within easy reach. 
The packing is done on shore, the luggage 
covered by a piece of water-proof cloth, 
either tucked in or fastened around screw- 
heads under the outer edge of the gunwale. 

One will, of course, carry a camera with 
which to preserve, and to multiply for 



136 A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 

friends, the delights of the trip. Many 
" snap-shooters," however, bring home com- 
monplace collections of photographic mem- 
orabilia rather than pictures. For the latter^ 
some knowledge of pictorial effect in pho- 
tography is necessary. Read a good book 
on the subject, and secure the criticism of 
any intelligent photographer upon some 
good or bad pictures and upon some pre- 
liminary attempts of your own. We followed 
the advice of a master of the art, and are 
the fortunate owners of a "Henry Clay" 
camera. This takes 5-by-7 pictures, and 
has a wide range of devices for securing 
complete pictorial results. 

A few simple medicines are indispensable. 
These are best carried in highly concentrat- 
ed forms. But our stand-bys are aromatic 
spirits of arnmonia, and collodion. 

As to reading we would recommend one 
book apiece^a book that can be read and 
read again — for days too hot to travel, or 
rainy days, or the Sabbath. More even an 
inveterate bookworm will find in the way — 
a temptation to lose much of the advan- 
tage of such a trip. 

For the delights of canoing corne from 



A FAMILY CANOE TRIP 



137 



nature and meditation, and the odd and 
novel incidents of the journey. It is a noble 
pleasure, worthy to grow, as it rapidly does, 
in favor, and to characterize our American 
people. 




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